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October 16
Williams was born in Bedford Springs, PA, and enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 14. He served and went on to become a lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican Army, and after the fall of Maximilian he moved west. Later Williams attended Howard University and Newton Theological Seminary, eventually becoming a minister. His career reached into journalism, and Williams wrote for two newspapers, and practiced law and politics. He served in the Ohio State Legislature and was minister to Haiti. Williams wrote two definitive books on the Black experience in the Civil War, in the period from the Jamestown landing to the end of Reconstruction, "A History of Negro Troops in The War of Rebellion" and "The History of the Negro Race in America, 1619-1880." After the publication of these books, Williams turned his attention to the plight of Africans under European colonial rule. He was interested in conditions within the Belgian Congo. He met with King Leopold II of Belgium, planning to travel to the Belgian Congo to review the conditions. The King strongly objected to Williams' trip but he went ahead with his plans. When he returned, Williams wrote a letter to the King detailing the extensive greed and cruelty of the Belgian rulers that he observed in the Congo. He charged that the slave trade was still active in Africa through the cooperation of the European powers, and workers were being exploited and denied access to the wealth they produced. Williams' grueling travels to Africa took a tremendous toll upon his health. George Washington Williams died in England in 1891. Reference: Black First: 2,000 years of extraordinary achievement by Jessie Carney Smith Copyright 1994 Visible Ink Press, Detroit, MI ISBN 0-8103-9490-1
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